Free tool
ERG volunteer hours calculator
Add up what running the women's network actually takes from your core team across a year, in hours, in hours per person per month, and in payroll value.
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ERG cost per attendee calculator
Work out what one seat in the room costs your women's network, and how much of the annual budget is already committed before the year starts.
Cost per attendee is the number a finance partner reaches for when the ERG budget comes up, and it is rarely the number the ERG lead has ready. It is not a judgment on the program, it is a unit of comparison against everything else the company spends money on, and it behaves very differently for a chapter running twelve small sessions than for one running two large summits.
This calculator also splits committed spend from what is left. Speaker fees and catering usually absorb most of an ERG budget, and knowing that split before a spending freeze tells you exactly what a ten percent reduction would remove from the calendar.
Your result
Attendance seats filled this year
408
Every attendance counts, so a member who comes four times fills four seats.
Program cost per attendee
$58.82
This is the figure a finance partner will compare against other internal programs.
Speakers plus catering
$16,344
The part of the budget that is effectively spoken for once the calendar is set.
Left for everything else
$7,656
What remains for room hire, printing, childcare support and the mentoring circle.
A negative figure at the bottom means the calendar as planned is already over budget, which is far better to find in September than in May.
Why cost per attendee beats total spend in a review
Total spend invites one reaction, which is that the number sounds large. Cost per attendee invites a comparison, and ERG programming usually compares extremely well against external training, conference tickets or a recruiting event that reaches a fraction of the people.
Run it per event as well as for the year. One expensive keynote can hide a very efficient program of lunch sessions underneath it, and separating the two protects the cheap recurring formats that a blunt percentage cut would otherwise take out first.
The number changes when you count honestly
Most ERG leads quote registrations because registrations are easy to find. Check in numbers usually run well below them, and a cost per attendee built on registrations will be challenged by anybody who has attended one of your events and looked around the room.
Quote the verified number and explain the gap yourself. A chapter that reports 27 attended against 41 registered, and names the two changes it is making to close that gap, reads as a program under control rather than one being marked by somebody else.
Questions about this calculator
Should volunteer hours be included in the cost?
Not in this figure. Cost per attendee should reflect cash your company actually spent, because that is what finance is comparing. Volunteer hours belong in the report as a separate contribution figure, which the ERG volunteer hours calculator estimates.
How do virtual events change the arithmetic?
They usually pull cost per attendee down sharply, since catering disappears and reach goes up. Present in person and virtual formats separately, otherwise a strong virtual turnout can mask an in person format that is quietly failing.
What is a reasonable cost per attendee for a women's ERG?
There is no published benchmark that holds across company sizes, so the useful comparison is internal. Compare against what your company spends per head on external training or on a recruiting event, and compare this year against your own last year.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The ERG annual impact report readiness checklist
Four stages that turn a year of ERG events, receipts and survey answers into a report an executive sponsor can absorb in ten minutes.
Back that figure with a year of check in lists
A number typed into a browser is an estimate, and an estimate is what gets challenged in the room. The same figure pulled from verified attendance and invoices matched to approved lines is evidence, which is the difference between a sponsor nodding along and a sponsor defending your catering line in a tight quarter. Show us your last ERG year in a demo and we will rebuild this calculation from your own records.